Happy 2012: Wishing for More Health, Less Global Poverty and Less Income Inequality

Technology connects people on any part of the globe; yet poverty, warfare, disease, wealth inequality increases

[Publisher's Commentary]

Happy 2012 Global Sisters and Brothers.

Today, the New Year's Eve, is a day to celebrate with family, loves ones and friends.

It's a day when many mortal enemies sheath their swords for 24 hours.

It's a day when millions gather in public squares all over the world to celebrate the dawn of the first day of a new year.

It's a day when people hug loved ones and total strangers in public places.

It's a day when we all celebrate life and realize it's our most precious possession and well worth guarding dearly.

It's a day when we celebrate having logged an additional year in our journey on this earth; an affirmation of our desire to register many more days, weeks, months and years.

It's a day when we acknowledge by our celebrations that we are lucky survivors--that we have lived another day to tell another story and to continue to interact with other human beings.

It's a day when we realize that many others did not make it through this year --felled by diseases, felled by murder, felled by execution, felled by warfare and aggression, felled by accidents, felled by despondence and suicide-- and that many more will not make it between now and tomorrow.

It's a day that would even be more worthwhile if some of the sentiments and feelings pervasive today could last for a few more days, if not everyday, during the new year that we celebrate tomorrow.

It's a day when we should all reflect upon what it means to be a human being in the 21st century, that; in an era when technology has created platforms for instantaneous interactions between people on any part of the globe that so much poverty, warfare, disease, ignorance, and wealth inequality increases.

Yet at the end, it's a day for celebrating our universal desire for a better life and for longevity wherever we may reside on this globe.

It's a day when on a personal note, and on behalf of all my siblings and on behalf of friends who cherish their memory, I salute my late parents Erifasi Otema Allimadi and Alice Lamunu Allimadi.